Here to provide some handy resources to help with the huge amount of time that planning takes up. A variety of resources for literacy, library, English and Classics teaching.
Teacher of English and Classics for 17 years with plenty of experience in secondary schools.
Whole school Literacy co-ordination in 5 schools.
If you are looking for something particular, please let me know and I will see if I can help you out.
Here to provide some handy resources to help with the huge amount of time that planning takes up. A variety of resources for literacy, library, English and Classics teaching.
Teacher of English and Classics for 17 years with plenty of experience in secondary schools.
Whole school Literacy co-ordination in 5 schools.
If you are looking for something particular, please let me know and I will see if I can help you out.
This booklet takes KS3 pupils through a year’s worth of lessons in the library- enough for a lesson once a fortnight.
The booklet I have created has been trialled for two years in school and works well. I have had some excellent feedback from both students and teachers who have enjoyed the variety of work within it.
It begins with some work on the student’s reading history and then continues with group reading (we have 5 copies of each of the texts mentioned- you would need to edit to add your own book choices.) In my school I asked both teachers and parents to read the same book and this resulted in a book club discussion focused on key questions as generic prompts. If you download the resource and want the questions then please just email me for them. To develop this section even further I have asked my students to create ppt teasers for the books they have read to present ot the new yr7s.
After this section students delve further in to the library and explore different genre sections, picking out a few books that interest them and discussing the genre. These notes are collated in the booklet.
There is also a feedback section at the end.
This resource is a little more expensive as it is a year’s worth of work.
A comprehensive booklet to be used to help pupils consolidate the satirical texts from the Literary sources.
Each section provides a brief history about the writer and the satire that is presented. The booklet then asksd pupils to respond, summarising key information from the test. There are study questions for discussion at th eend of each text.
I used this as a homework booklet to reinforce what was learnt in class and as a revision resoucres for the pupils- the discussion questions were the starter for following lessons. You could however, also use it as an in class resource.
A total of 11 pages.
An example about Juvenal below:
A thorough series of two/ three lessons (18 slides) on Horace 2.8 with a view to help pupils understand who the characters are and the parts they play in the satire. Developed line analysis questions for pupils to work on as a class with you, or in groups to feedback. A fishbowl discussion set up at the end for the theme of dinner parties in texts.
Some Myth and religion recall slides included for mini starters.
A useful resource to use to get pupils exploring books from different genres and develop an idea of their own preferences. Lasts 2/3 lessons.
(this can be used not for genres, just for books you have chosen for them to explore)
Set up 5/6 books on each table (can be more or less depending on your time) from different genres as a carousel and get the pupils to look at the title, read the first page and the blurb of all on the table.
Pupils choose the best one from each table and rate it.
Activity leads on where they can consider their own crafting and what genre they would lean towards writing themselves. Writing frame applied for this.
KS3 core spelling booklet for prep for the year/ to use in class.
The booklet goes through tricky spelling rule plus a number of other core spellings from across the curriculum:
Part 1
List 1: ie/ei 3
List 2: s/c/sc/cc/xc 4
List 3: g/ge/dge 6
List 4 and 5: Double letters 7
List 6: Suffix -ing/-ed 9
List 7: Suffix -ous/-eous/-ious 10
List 8: Suffix -ence/-ance 11
List 9: Suffix -ent/-ant 12
List 9 (cont): Suffix -tion/-cion/-sion 12
List 10: Suffix -ly/-ally 13
List 10: Suffix -ful/-fil 14
Lists 11 and 12: Words that look or sound similar 15
List 13: Other common misspellings 16
Example sentences 18
About this booklet
Part 1 lists all the words you are required to know, organised by spelling rule. Begin by rating your confidence on each spelling by ticking the appropriate box. This will help you identify the spelling rules you most need to focus on.
You will see on your prep timetable that there is a fortnightly slot for literacy. Your teacher will tell you which lists to learn ahead of a ten-question quiz the following literacy lesson.
You may also like to refer to Part 2 of this booklet to see each word used in a sentence.
E.G. page 1 without practise grid
List 1: ie/ei
Rule: ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’
Not confident Moderately confident Very confident
achieve
believe
chief
friend
hierarchy
hygiene
medieval
mischievous
perceive
piece
receipt
receive
siege
Rule breakers:
Not confident Moderately confident Very confident
foreign
height
leisure
neighbour
seize
weird
This is lesson 2B from my ‘A Christmas Carol teaching unit’ which covers the whole text for GCSE teaching purposes. It is based on GCSE AQA specifications, but can be adapted for any year group or exam board- page numbers will need to be edited to your copy.
This lesson is a taster of what you can expect from my set of 24 lessons which can be purchased as a bundle- though I am offering a few lessons for free and a few for £1 purchase. There is also a revision/ task booklet avaliable and a revision bundle.
There is a video attached to the description/ preview page so you can see the whole unit of work with the many resources avaliable should you wish to have more information.
This particular lesson focuses on the intial depcition of Scrooge, analysing the language used by Dickens, modelling a paragraph of writing in response to a question and then leading pupils to write their own response.
Each poem follows a similar layout…Example:
Poem 1: What has happened to LULU (poem on sheet)
By Charles Causley
What is the poem about? (space provided for answers under each question so pupils can write in booklet)
Who is speaking?
Why is the title significant?
Find one technique and explain the impact on the reader and why you think the author uses it?
How does the poet feel about the topic?
Practise exam question, taken from exam paper: Explore how Causley presents the thoughts and feelings of the speaker in the poem.
This is a booklet created for my GCSE class which covered 14 poems that the exam board has covered with questions to explore each poem and the exam question at the end for pupils to attempt.
This has been used very successfully for a couple of years and works great as either a practise booklet prior to exams or (as I have used it) as a homework booklet for pupils to work through.
It could also be used as a quick pick up for cover or a lesson, or a go to if you need some time to mark.
A two part video of Petronius’ dinner with Trimalchio. Starts with a bit of history on Petronius and then goes on to two videos talking through the resrouce to help pupils understand the text. The resource is displayed on the screen so pupils could annotate from the recording if they want (I don not actively annotate on the screen)
The two parts together are 38 minutes so quite a lot of detail here.
This was created for my pupils and they are using it for revision. It could also be used for homework/ teaching/ cover lesson.
This is a fully resourced Scheme of Work for the teaching of Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ at GCSE. It is tried and tested and has been taught with excellent outcomes over the past ten years. It is specifically tailored for the AQA GCSE, but can be adapted for any exam board or even just used as a nice scheme of learning for lower down the school.
Example lessons 1 and 2B are avaliable to download for free so you can see the type of resources you will be purchasing. I also have a number of the lessons/ resources avaliable under the title ‘A Christmas Carol’ as paid for, stand-alone, lessons should you wish to only purchase a few things.
I also have a separate workbook avaliable that pupils can use for 15 mintues a day to analyse language and significant moments in the text- preview avaliable in my shop.
There is a total of 24 lessons in this SOW and each lesson has a powerpoint to download and often there are accompanying worksheets/ tasks. The SOW covers analysis of a passage as well as how to respond to the longer, developed essay titles. Tasks are not all GCSE response focussed (in order to engage pupils) and there are a variety of activities such as: persuasive letter writing; debating; hot-seating of characters; obituary writing, descriptive tasks and the making of class paperchains (based on Marley’s chains of purgatory) to decorate your classroom for the festive season!
Each lesson has a starter activity for the pupils to begin as they enter the room and, if you click on the Christmas tree on the first slide of every lesson, it will link you to a christmas song on youtube that you can play whilst they complete the activity/ enter and settle down to learn. Be warned, this leads to much singing, dancing and general merriment on everyone’s part!
I have also included a cloze exercise (word doc) for each stave as a starter/ plenary or revision activity (with answers) for you to use with your classes.
The complete scheme includes:
Lesson 1- Historical context/ A03
Lesson 2- Characters and attitudes towards Christmas
Lesson 2B- The characterisation of Scrooge.
Lesson 3- Vocabulary and glossary
Lesson 4- Analysing a passage
Lesson 5+6-Writing to describe - copying Dickens’ style (used as a creative writing assessment)
Lesson 7- feedback
Lesson 8- Marley’s Ghost
Lesson 9- The Chains of purgatory
Lesson 10,11+12- The Ghost of Christmas Past
Lesson 13- Stave two character discussion and debate.
Lesson 14- The Ghost of Christmas Present
Lesson 15- Empathy/ sympathy, social reform and the cratchitts
Lesson 16-Tiny Tim biography
Lesson 17-Changing impressions
Lesson 18- Ignorance and Want- Dickens’ message
Lesson 19- Contrast
Lesson 20- The Cratchitts revisited
Lesson 21- The Spirits
Lesson 22- The end of it
Lesson 23- Past paper questions and essay planning
To be used as a lesson asking pupils to reflect on books.
Task one: consider their own book that has inspired them and share. used for display.
Task two: use a link to the author’s academy to watch a video on a relevant workshop on: how to create interesting character, how to write and adevnture story or how to form the seeds of a story.
You can develop this to have them writing as much as you want.
Task three: 17 dingbats on popular book titles with answers.
Good fun for all involved.
A detailed series of lessons (9 lessons over 33 slides) that cover the Roman Home and family section of the OCR exam.
A lesson on the Paterfamilias, independent work on Roman education and an active dinner party set up where pupils each take a role (we took this further by bringing in a guitar for music and having some food).
Also detailed analysis on Pliny 2.6 with questions to answer plus my board annotations to utilise.
Then analysis of Horace 2.8 with analysis questions for the pupils to do in groups and feedback. Fishbowl discussion at the end.
This all leads to a 15 mark literature question on dinner parties.
Pepperd with Myth and religion recall
A total of 9 lessons
A GCSE revision ppt that covers all of the Greek god with images that can be used to test knowledge- after identification, infomation about each God is presented with iconography and terminology.,
The lesson also contains numerous past paper one/two mark questions to practise and there are two past paper 15 markers at the end with planning/ ideas to help pupils begin a response.
A bundle of revision videos for Pliny’s satires that pupils can watch/ use in class or for prep.
These videos take the pupils through all of the letters with one giving a bit of history on Pliny.
You can view my video of ‘Degredation at a dinner Party’ under my free resources to give you sample of what this bundle will include/ look like.
A copy of the poem with question prompts around it to allow for independent or group exploration prior to teaching.
Excellent for teaching unseen poetry exploration or to set as a prep for teaching of poem next lesson.
Whole task will fill a 40 minute lesson with feedback.
This is lesson 21 from my ‘A Christmas Carol teaching unit’ which covers the whole text for GCSE teaching purposes. It is based on GCSE AQA specifications, but can be adapted for any year group or exam board- page numbers will need to be edited to your copy.
This lesson is a taster of what you can expect from my set of 24 lessons which can be purchased as a bundle- though I am offering a few lessons for free and a few for £1 purchase. There is also a revision/ task booklet avaliable and a revision bundle.
There is a video attached to the description/ preview page so you can see the whole unit of work with the many resources avaliable should you wish to have more information.
This lesson specifically focuses on The Spirits in the text; looking at how they are presented, what their purpose is and which is the most influential. There is also a complementary worksheet which allows pupils to analyse quotations about the presentation of the spirits -great to keep hold of for revision notes.
N.B. The page you see in the preview for the worksheet is the first page which is a modelled response, the pupils have to complete the work for the three other spirits.)
This ‘A Christmas Carol’ revision workbook is a 28 page booklet that uses small extracts from the text and questions to allow pupils to develop their understanding of the text and begin to form analytical responses. There are 5/6 pages of work for each stave.
The first page of the booklet is a modelled response to develop high expectations for the work and the rest of the booklet has questions… please see preview for the first few pages of work from the booklet- a clear example of what to expect.
Instructions for pupils: work through this booklet for the first 15 minutes of every English lesson (could also be used for homework or revision lessons). The booklet is designed to help you:
Remember the events and key quotes of A Christmas Carol
Develop your analysis of and response to the novel-meaning your ability to explain what quotes suggest about characters, why a character/place/event is important in the story etc.
Consider context-Victorian life in 1843, and Dickens’ inspirations and intentions in writing the novel.
A library booklet which covers 20 lessons plus(a year worth) using library books/ information and resources in a way that allows pupils to respond creatively.
Areas of library covered: Poetry, novels in verse, Harvard referecing system for academic texts, serialisation of novels/ dickens, graphic novels, autobiographies and biographies, crime fiction.
Group reading of three books: novel in verse, Dickens of choice (Christmas Carol in this booklet but can be adapted), Crime fiction.
Topics:
**Poetry **
Lesson 1- Looking at poetry in the library - copying a poem of their choice and mimicking the creative style of imagery in the style of William Blake.
Lesson 2+3 Blackout poetry using pupil’s favourite books.
Lesson 4,5,6- Reading of a novel in verse with a book review. This can be a class reader if you want to buy one in or the pupils can explore their own in the library. For class reader I would recommend ‘The Weight of Water’ or ‘Booked.’
**Dickens/ Christmas **- this is skills based section and can be adapted using the templates in the booklet for any text being studied
Lesson 7- Harvard refercing system using texts on Victorian life in the library
Lesson 8- Short story carousels based Dicken’s serialisation of novels in papers.
Lesson 9+10- Explore library graphic novel collection and create your own mini graphic novel of a story using templates.
Advertising and biography
Lesson 11- Library logo hunt.
Lessons 12+13+14+15- autobiography project looking at autobiographies and biographies in the library then creating own Book cover, blurb etc for themselves.
Lessons 16-20- Reading of crime/ mystery fiction: Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot and Miss. Marple. For more modern crime/mystery fiction you could use ‘A murder most unladlike’ novels which are very popular amongst pupils at the moment.
This is the first lesson for the OCR Myth and Religion Classics GCSE 1:3- Religion and the city unit.
It covers the unit outline and expectations, as well as information about both Greek and Roman temples. There is some discussion based around modern day churches and comparison with ancient structural choices, diagrams for your pupils to label and a fun task for them to complete to help them remember the structure of a temple of their choice (Greek or Roman.) There is also a prep which will lead into the starter activity for the next lesson.
I am teaching this unit at this moment and currently using the half-term to work on creating my lessons- I will be uploading a full unit bundle (for a small price) when I have completed it. This lesson should give you a free sample of the lessons you can expect should you wish to purchase and download the bundle when I have uploaded it.
This is lesson 1 from my ‘A Christmas Carol teaching unit’ which covers the whole text for GCSE teaching purposes. It is based on GCSE AQA specifications, but can be adapted for any year group or exam board- oage numbers will need to be edited to your copy.
This lesson is a taster of what you can expect from my set of 24 lessons which can be purchased as a bundle- though I am offering a few lessons for free and a few for £1 purchase. There is also a revision/ task booklet avaliable and a revision bundle.
There is a video attached to the description/ oreview page so you can see the whole unit of work with the many resources avaliable should you wish to have more information.
This particular lesson asks pupils to recap their prior knowledge about Charles Dickens, links to a short video about Dickens’ childhood and early life and gets pupils to explore different pictures from the Victorian era to see the problems with Victorian society that led to Dickens’ pesual of social reform.
Top tip: Click on the Christmas tree on the starter activity of each lesson and it will link you to a chrictmas carol/ song that can play as your pupils enter the room- a great, fun start that has a clear time limit for the starter activity to be completed- or for the class to settle down ready to learn :)